Monday, 13 December 2010
Synopsis
Our film is about a man called Sam that has an addiction to killing people. The film opens with us seeing all of the tools laid out in his bedroom with lots of candles. This shows us that he is a bit mad. Whilst this scene is going on we also see shots of an empty room with a phone ringing. This gives the audience suspicion as to what is going on. We then see Sam meet his friend Josh in a park. Josh knows about Sam’s obsession but thinks that it has gone too far and is going to go the police. This then inspires Sam to kill josh to keep his secret safe. The overall mood of the play is very dark and mysterious.
Video technology evaluation: The Project
Over the past six weeks we have been working on a thriller in a group of three. We had to make a three minute opening to a thriller movie.
In our project I think that the process that we used to both film and edit the thriller worked really well because we worked well as a team and listened to each other’s ideas. However the filming sequence in the park would have probably worked better if it were in a quieter location. During the edit when we first imported our work onto the computer we found that we felt like we didn’t have enough footage that we could use. This was because where we had shot the majority of the footage was in a room with not very good lighting so allot of the film taken was rather grainy. However we overcame this by changing the style that the film would be portrayed in than what we had originally thought. During the location shoot my main role was to direct the actors and crew as to where they should be and what they should be doing. I also helped to create the shots that are scene in the thriller. This was quite a hard job because I had to think about what would look good in the finished product and what the group were trying to achieve in the thriller. We used final cut pro to edit our thriller’s audio and visual aspects so that it was ready for us to use soundtrack pro to create fitting music for our project. We imported our video into soundtrack pro so that we could make the soundtrack fit to the visual drops in the film. We also learned how to de-interlace our project and then export it so that it was ready to be compressed into different formats.
I think that we used the technology to its full potential because we used a wide variety of shots and angles in the bedroom scenes. We also used the focus in some of the shots to create an interesting looking piece. During the bedroom scenes we had lots of candles in the room and I think that by getting right up close to them with the camera and boom microphone we were able to capture some very interesting sound and visuals. If we could have had some extra equipment I think that I would have like to have some lights for the indoor shot because in the finished product the lighting that we had makes the shots look kind of grainy. We tried to correct this in Final Cut by colour correcting the picture and I think this helped. Also I would have liked to have had a dolly for the park scene because we had no entrance to the scene and I think that this confused people and made the story unclear. If we were to do the project again then I think that I would also have changed the script in the park scene to exclude the ten year old section because this was confusing the audience. Also I think that I would have tried to make the story clearer because allot of the feedback that we received made it seem as if the story was unclear and not portrayed well enough.
I think that the music worked well with the thriller because it helped to add an atmosphere to the thriller. I specifically like the music in the last part of the thriller because it gives the whole ending sequence an eerie feel because the music is very distorted and strange. I think that our opening works well as a thriller because it builds suspense, creates an enigma and does not reveal the entire story at once. I think that our thriller is quite conventional because it obeys most of the conventions of a thriller. Such as: creating a tense atmosphere, using dark shadows and interesting camera angles to create a sense of foreboding and mystery. We received quite allot of feedback that said that “the story was hard to follow,” but we also got some feedback saying that “there was a good variety of shots and camera movement”. Based on the feedback that we received I would have made the story a bit less confusing, use better lighting in the bedroom scenes and also give the audience more evidence that the main character is the killer.
In our project I think that the process that we used to both film and edit the thriller worked really well because we worked well as a team and listened to each other’s ideas. However the filming sequence in the park would have probably worked better if it were in a quieter location. During the edit when we first imported our work onto the computer we found that we felt like we didn’t have enough footage that we could use. This was because where we had shot the majority of the footage was in a room with not very good lighting so allot of the film taken was rather grainy. However we overcame this by changing the style that the film would be portrayed in than what we had originally thought. During the location shoot my main role was to direct the actors and crew as to where they should be and what they should be doing. I also helped to create the shots that are scene in the thriller. This was quite a hard job because I had to think about what would look good in the finished product and what the group were trying to achieve in the thriller. We used final cut pro to edit our thriller’s audio and visual aspects so that it was ready for us to use soundtrack pro to create fitting music for our project. We imported our video into soundtrack pro so that we could make the soundtrack fit to the visual drops in the film. We also learned how to de-interlace our project and then export it so that it was ready to be compressed into different formats.
I think that we used the technology to its full potential because we used a wide variety of shots and angles in the bedroom scenes. We also used the focus in some of the shots to create an interesting looking piece. During the bedroom scenes we had lots of candles in the room and I think that by getting right up close to them with the camera and boom microphone we were able to capture some very interesting sound and visuals. If we could have had some extra equipment I think that I would have like to have some lights for the indoor shot because in the finished product the lighting that we had makes the shots look kind of grainy. We tried to correct this in Final Cut by colour correcting the picture and I think this helped. Also I would have liked to have had a dolly for the park scene because we had no entrance to the scene and I think that this confused people and made the story unclear. If we were to do the project again then I think that I would also have changed the script in the park scene to exclude the ten year old section because this was confusing the audience. Also I think that I would have tried to make the story clearer because allot of the feedback that we received made it seem as if the story was unclear and not portrayed well enough.
I think that the music worked well with the thriller because it helped to add an atmosphere to the thriller. I specifically like the music in the last part of the thriller because it gives the whole ending sequence an eerie feel because the music is very distorted and strange. I think that our opening works well as a thriller because it builds suspense, creates an enigma and does not reveal the entire story at once. I think that our thriller is quite conventional because it obeys most of the conventions of a thriller. Such as: creating a tense atmosphere, using dark shadows and interesting camera angles to create a sense of foreboding and mystery. We received quite allot of feedback that said that “the story was hard to follow,” but we also got some feedback saying that “there was a good variety of shots and camera movement”. Based on the feedback that we received I would have made the story a bit less confusing, use better lighting in the bedroom scenes and also give the audience more evidence that the main character is the killer.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Digital Television Technology
Digital technology has enabled us to radically change the way that we watch and use TV and film. Because digital signals can be compressed easily we can now have lots more channels with better quality. Also because it can be compressed it means that the data can be stored in very small devices such as USB drives, I-pods and phones. This makes the storage of shows and films a lot easier because it takes up much less space. This allows us to have lots of film on our computers and on the internet (YouTube). Digital has also vastly improved editing. Because it has moved from tape to computers it has made editing much more instant. Also you can add special effects with digital far easier than with tape. Digital has made editing far easier because everything that would have taken a long time before can now be done instantly at the touch of a button.
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